We feel a little out of it... for many reasons, but three in particular;
1: We don't have face-masks and there are pigs with the flu out there.
2: We are speaking Korean and everyone else is speaking Japanese.
3: We cannot stop getting lost!
1: We don't have face-masks and there are pigs with the flu out there.
2: We are speaking Korean and everyone else is speaking Japanese.
3: We cannot stop getting lost!
We arrived in Tokyo on Thursday evening and all the Japanese on our flight were wearing face masks... we thought, perhaps, that this was taking things a little too far, so we dropped a few words in spanish and coughed a lot for a laugh. When we landed in Tokyo, the whole plane was greeted by quarantine officials in scrubs and were given 20 questions about our contact with Mexicans, Americans and Canadians. After a detailed investigation, we were awarded a certificate saying we had passed the quarantine test and were free to continue onto immigration... think we might get them framed. After we lined up behind a gender confused nun and were asked another 55 questions about our plans in Japan and the contents of our bags, they set us free into Tokyo!!
We found our way to our hostel and were told we'd recieved an upgrade of sorts... rather than being put in the 10 bed dorm we'd booked online, we were placed in a 6 bed 'capsule' dorm room- whoot whoot!
Capsule bedOur first day was spent hanging out with Japanese school girls and exploring our local areas of Asakusa and Ueno.
Amy & school girlsAfter living in Korea for the last year or so, the lack of noise, neon and people in these areas took a bit of getting used to, but it was good to see a bit of 'old Tokyo' even if it was very different to what we were expecting.
While walking through a park in Ueno, we noticed there were quite a few homeless men hanging about... favourite hang out spot for the old guys perhaps? As we kept walking we saw a group of about 200 people sitting silently in rows on the concrete. At first we thought it was some kind of protest or an incredibly quiet performance, but as we got closer we realised it was more of a soup-kitchen type arrangement for the local homeless population. It was a really strange sight for us, partly because while living in Youngtong we didn't really see that many homeless people, but what was really strange was that the whole affair was conducted in such an orderly and quiet way... it was kind of eerie in a way, but at the same time it was a humbling sight.
After a long day of walking we decided to cash in our free drink cards at the hostel's bar. Hmmm... 'bar'... well, corridor would be a better description. A corridor with a few stools and alcohol. We used our coupons on beer. This may not be unexpected nor exciting for those of you reading at home, but for us it was a taste-bud revelation. The sweet sweet sapporo rolled out of the glass and down our throats in a way we had forgotten beer could. It was so good NOT to be drinking Cass, that we put away a solid 4 beers in an hour (or 3 hours with bottles of water interspersed between the beers, if you are our mums reading this).
The following day... think that was Saturday (all this no working is making us forget what day it is... mwahhahaha) we headed into central Tokyo to check out the Imperial Palace. Palace Schmalace. After a few wrong turns that resulted in a 5km detour around the palace moat, we discovered that the palace is not, in fact, open to the public (nor visible at any point around the long long moat), but we were able to view the gardens. Great. Trees are overrated... so is grass you can't sit on. It was pretty nonetheless.
In the afternoon we visited Tokyo tower where we met a monkey wearing pants and got photos taken with a giant penis. Fact.
While walking through a park in Ueno, we noticed there were quite a few homeless men hanging about... favourite hang out spot for the old guys perhaps? As we kept walking we saw a group of about 200 people sitting silently in rows on the concrete. At first we thought it was some kind of protest or an incredibly quiet performance, but as we got closer we realised it was more of a soup-kitchen type arrangement for the local homeless population. It was a really strange sight for us, partly because while living in Youngtong we didn't really see that many homeless people, but what was really strange was that the whole affair was conducted in such an orderly and quiet way... it was kind of eerie in a way, but at the same time it was a humbling sight.
After a long day of walking we decided to cash in our free drink cards at the hostel's bar. Hmmm... 'bar'... well, corridor would be a better description. A corridor with a few stools and alcohol. We used our coupons on beer. This may not be unexpected nor exciting for those of you reading at home, but for us it was a taste-bud revelation. The sweet sweet sapporo rolled out of the glass and down our throats in a way we had forgotten beer could. It was so good NOT to be drinking Cass, that we put away a solid 4 beers in an hour (or 3 hours with bottles of water interspersed between the beers, if you are our mums reading this).
The following day... think that was Saturday (all this no working is making us forget what day it is... mwahhahaha) we headed into central Tokyo to check out the Imperial Palace. Palace Schmalace. After a few wrong turns that resulted in a 5km detour around the palace moat, we discovered that the palace is not, in fact, open to the public (nor visible at any point around the long long moat), but we were able to view the gardens. Great. Trees are overrated... so is grass you can't sit on. It was pretty nonetheless.
In the afternoon we visited Tokyo tower where we met a monkey wearing pants and got photos taken with a giant penis. Fact.
Monkey wearing pants
Giant penisOn Sunday, we went to Shibuya and crossed the famous crossing every which way we could before heading to Harajuku to people watch and soak up the atmosphere. After snapping a few shots of the Harajuku girls (and boys) we wondered around Yoyogi-Koen Park and chilled out with a few beers in the sun amongst the Rockabillies and Rastas... the perfect Sunday passtime anywhere in the world.
Harajuku girl
RockabillyAfter dark, we came across a big Jamaican festival where we discovered cheap box wine... we're not sure what happened after that, but the photos look hilarious, so it's safe to assume we had fun.
New Aussie friends...we are everywhere.Japan, so far so good!
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